Bonnie and Clyde Photo Gallery

Bonnie and Clyde

Bonnie Parker was just shy of 5 feet tall, all of 90 pounds, a part-time waitress and amateur poet from a poor Dallas home who was bored with life and wanted something more. Clyde Barrow was a fast-talking, small-time thief from a similarly destitute Dallas family who hated poverty and wanted to make a name for himself. Together, they became the most notorious crime couple in American history.

Playing With Guns

Their story, though often romanticized on the silver screen, was hardly glamorous. From summer 1932 until spring 1934, they left a trail of violence and terror in their wake as they crisscrossed the countryside robbing gas stations, village groceries, and the occasional bank and taking hostages when they got into a tight spot.

Bonnie Parker

The Dallas Observer noted about Bonnie: "although the authorities who gunned down the 23-year-old in 1934 conceded that she was no bloodthirsty killer and that when taken into custody she tended to inspire the paternal aspects of the police who held her...there was a mystifying devolution from the high school poet, speech class star, and mini-celebrity who performed Shirley Temple-like as a warm-up act at the stump speeches of local politicians to the accomplice of rage-filled Clyde Barrow."

Clyde Barrow

Clyde, already an ex-con, was a few months short of 21 when he met Bonnie and began their crime spree, crisscrossing the countryside in a series of stolen cars.

Some Considered Them 'Heroic'

Crime writer Joseph Geringer's article "Bonnie and Clyde: Romeo and Juliet in a Getaway Car" explained part of Bonnie and Clyde's appeal to the public then, and their celebrity legend now, by saying, "Americans thrilled to their 'Robin Hood' adventures. The presence of a female, Bonnie, escalated the sincerity of their intentions to make them something unique and individual—even at times heroic."

Wanted Poster

Once the FBI became involved in capturing Bonnie and Clyde, the agents went to work distributing wanted notices with fingerprints, photographs, descriptions, criminal records, and other information to police officers across the country.

Bullet-Riddled Car

On May 23, 1934, police officers from Louisiana and Texas ambushed Bonnie and Clyde along a remote road in Sailes, Louisiana. Some say they were hit with more than 50 bullets each; others say it was 25 apiece. Either way, Bonnie and Clyde died instantly.

Memorial

In the poem "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde" by Bonnie herself, she wrote,

"Some day they'll go down together
And they'll bury them side by side.
To few it'll be grief,
To the law a relief
But it's death for Bonnie and Clyde."

But the two were not destined to lie together, as she had written. Parker initially was buried in the Fishtrap Cemetery in Dallas, but in 1945 she was moved to the new Crown Hill Cemetery, also in Dallas.

Clyde was buried in the city's Western Heights Cemetery next to his brother Marvin.